HOMELESS PROGRAM CITED

Vista church has allowed people to stay in parking lot

Vista 
A Vista church that city officials say has been violating city code has applied to change its permit so it can continue allowing homeless people to spend the night in their cars in the parking lot.

Cornerstone Christian Church has partnered with nonprofit Dreams for Change, an organization that helps provide homeless families and individuals with a safe place to park and sleep for the night, in this case the church parking lot.

A portable bathroom is provided.

Homeless people have been staying the night in the lot for about three weeks. Many in the community support the program, but the feeling is not universal.

Vista code enforcement intervened following a complaint from a neighbor. Another nonprofit focused on homelessness, North County Solutions for Change, has criticized Dreams for Change’s methods.

The church, in a residentially zoned area south of state Route 78, has a special use permit to operate in the neighborhood.

Vista code enforcement on Tuesday cited the church for violating the permit, which doesn’t allow people to spend the night in their cars on-site, city spokeswoman Andrea McCullough said. Cornerstone Church Pastor Ed Garcia said Tuesday that he was not yet aware of a fine, but the church wants to comply with the city.

There is “an impression that we are just belligerently defying the city,” Garcia said. “That is not our intent at all. We want to do things right.”

Citations begin at $100 and can rise to $500.

Garcia said the church is trying to help those in need, and that Dreams for Change is a good organization.

“They (Dreams for Change) have a wonderful plan in place, and it’s like, hey we just want to help,” Garcia said. “That’s what church is all about, when it ministers to the needs of the people in the community. ... It’s a part of our mission.”

Program participants are allowed to park there from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., though they can stay until 7 a.m. on weekends.

One neighbor, Francis Sanchez, said she didn’t mind the parking lot program.

“They need a place to live,” Sanchez said. “As long as they don’t bother us, we don’t bother them.”

She said she could sympathize with people who have lost their homes, and it would be inhumane not to give them a place to stay.

On Monday, Cornerstone Church applied to amend its permit to allow the parking lot program to continue.

It cost $2,300 to apply for the amendment, said Dreams For Change Chief Executive Teresa Smith. That was covered by the nonprofit Leichtag Foundation, Smith said. The foundation funds the North County arm of the safe parking lot program and has offered to pay fines, too, Smith said. For 2½ years, Dreams for Change has run a similar parking lot program in San Diego and has not had problems with code enforcement there, she said.

Vista’s Planning Commission will ultimately decide whether to modify the permit, but those types of changes don’t happen overnight.

The proposed permit amendment likely won’t make it onto a commission agenda until November or December, McCullough said.

Garcia said Tuesday that he was scheduled to meet that afternoon with city officials, and they would discuss what to do about the parking lot situation until the public hearing on the permit change.

Eight to 10 cars have been using the site, Smith said. Some cars house individuals while others have families. The organization’s website says the goal is to teach participants to become financially independent.

Another Vista nonprofit, Solutions for Change, disagrees with the program, saying enabling people and having children sleep in cars is a bad idea.

“It is never OK for a child to live in a car,” Solutions for Change Executive Director Chris Megison said in an email. “We think that it is shocking and morally unacceptable that any community, anywhere build programs and services around kids living in cars.”

Smith said her organization’s goal is to help them out of those situations and provide a safe place in the meantime.

Case managers and Dreams for Change staff are present while the cars are there.